Abstract
Antibody molecules are bivalent, or less often multivalent, with each antibody site within a single molecule having the same specificity. Bivalency must enhance the tenacity of antibody attachment to cell surfaces, as dissociation will require simultaneous release at both sites. However, the bivalency of the antibody sometimes induces a target cell to undergo antigenic modulation1–3, thereby offering the cell a means of evading complement and the various effector cells recruited by the antibody. We have investigated the attack by univalent antibodies, which, despite removal of one antibody site, retain their Fc zones and hence their ability to recruit the killing agents, on neoplastic B lymphocytes of the guinea pig L2C line. Rabbit antibodies raised against surface immunoglobulin of these cells were partially digested with papain to yield the univalent Fab/c derivatives4,5. We report here that these derivatives showed enhanced cell killing both in vitro and in vivo, and that this enhancement appeared to derive from avoiding antigenic modulation.
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Glennie, M., Stevenson, G. Univalent antibodies kill tumour cells in vitro and in vivo. Nature 295, 712–714 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/295712a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/295712a0
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